Social media users are speculating whether President Donald Trump threatened the secrecy of U.S. strikes against Iran’s major nuclear sites.
Trump announced on Saturday that the United States had completed a “very successful attack” on Iran’s key nuclear facilities — including Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — in a post on his Truth Social platform. He wrote that a “full payload of BOMBS” were dropped, and U.S. planes were safely on their way home.
In a second post after the announcement, he said: “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”
Hours later, Trump then addressed the nation from the White House, saying that they the facilities have been “completely and totally obliterated.”
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. Future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier,” Trump said.
But according to The New York Times, military experts in the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command were worried that Trump had given Iran too much warning in the lead-up to the attack.
Last Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” He said that Iran should have signed the “‘deal’” he told officials to sign, adding that it is a “waste of human life.”
On Tuesday, Trump said he would be leaving the Group of 7 summit in Canada early, noting that it has “nothing to do with a Cease Fire,” but it was “much bigger than that.” And in a separate post, he indicated that the United States now has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”
At a similar time, military planners already had two sets of B-2 bombers leave Missouri, with one fleet going east and one fleet going west. While flight trackers noticed the westward planes, they were intentionally deployed as decoys and could be tracked via commercial satellite. Meanwhile, the eastbound planes flew into the Iranian airspace undetected with a payload of bombs, The Times reported.
One anonymous military official told the outlet that Trump had become the “biggest threat to opsec,” or operational security, regarding the military planning.
The reporting prompted social media users to take notice.
One user responded: “The Pentagon ordered a diversionary flight of B-2 bombers as misdirection, per NYT, because they were afraid Trump was giving the attack away to Iran via his social media posts.”
“How many millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted because President No Leaks couldn’t stop posting about the secret attack about to happen?” another user said.
Jon Favreau, host of “Pod Save America,” also chimed in:“Sure seems like the Iranians were able to remove their highly enriched uranium out of the nuclear sites before they were hit because Trump couldn’t stop posting about how he might bomb them.”
Favreau cited a separate report that noted there was evidence Iran had moved equipment and uranium in recent days from Fordo, citing two Israeli officials. It was reported that they had removed around 880 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is below the 90% threshold used in nuclear weapons, after Trump repeatedly threatened to take military action.
In response to the U.S. attack, Iran on Monday launched missiles on American military bases in Qatar, multiple outlets reported. Iranian state television had in a caption that said it was a “a mighty and successful response” to “America’s aggression.”
Stories by Rachel Cohen
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